NDC allowed America to fight Boko Haram from Ghana in 2015 – Nitiwul

The then governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) granted an application by the Government of the United States of America to use Accra as a base for its forces to launch offensive attacks on the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria in the year 2015, Minister for Defense, Dominic Nitiwul has revealed.

The said application, according to Mr. Nitiwul, was granted by then deputy Minister for Defense, Alex Segbefia.

But the document outlining details of the said agreement the West African nation entered into with the American government, is nowhere to be found, the Defense Minister added.

Addressing Parliament, Friday, over the need for Parliament to ratify another agreement for a military relationship between the two countries, Nitiwul said the deal Mr. Segbefia approved in 2015 was not different from the Americans were seeking for in 2018.

“Mr. Speaker, in 2015, the Americans wanted to establish a base to go and fight terrorists in Nigeria. The American requested to deploy Marine Forces and Military Aircraft in Accra. Then deputy Minister for Defense, Alex Segbefia approved the deal and this is what he wrote to the Americans – “I have the pleasure to inform you that the Ministry of Defense have no objection to the intended deployment of US Marines and Military Aircraft in Accra as described in the US Note Verbale attached to the letter reference”. He however, suggested that all operations by the aforementioned force will be within the framework of the agreement signed earlier”, he noted.

But he was quick to inform the legislature that the agreement that was approved by Alex Segbefia together with the one entered into with the American government which was signed in Stuttgart on April 13, 2015 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hannah Tetteh on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Ghana are nowhere to be found.

“Mr. Speaker, I am still looking for the agreement Segbefia and co signed with the American government. That agreement together with the one Hannah Tetteh signed is missing in my Ministry. It is also not found in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration. I’m still looking for it”, he noted.